Thursday, November 3, 2011

Salman Butt and Pakistan bowlers jailed for betting scam

ormer Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt has been jailed for 30 months for his part in the conspiracy to bowl deliberate no-balls in last year's Test match against England.

Former world number two Test bowler Mohammad Asif, 28, was jailed for one year and bowler Mohammad Amir, 19, has been sentenced to six months.

Cricket agent Mazhar Majeed was jailed for two years and eight months.
The court heard the no-balls were to show gamblers that play could be fixed.
The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said cricket matches would forever be tainted by the scandal.In his sentencing remarks, which have been published online, he told the defendants: "'It's not cricket' was an adage. It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious.

"The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew tweeted: "Let's hope this is the necessary deterrent to restore the integrity of cricket. Tempted? Think again. Caught=prison."
The Pakistan Cricket Board said the conviction of the players was "a sad day for Pakistan cricket".

In February all three players were banned for five years by the International Cricket Council. All three are appealing against their suspensions.

But former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan said they should have been given lifetime bans.
The three players have all been ordered to pay compensation towards prosecution costs.
Butt, 27, was ordered to pay £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.
The men were arrested after the fourth Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010.
An undercover News of the World (NOTW) reporter paid Majeed £150,000 for details of the precise timing of three no-balls, which the players were persuaded to bowl, which were extremely valuable on the spot-fixing betting market.

Majeed claimed to have paid Asif £65,000, Butt £10,000 and Amir £2,500.
The judge told all the players they would be released on licence half way through their sentences if they behaved.
The trial heard that the cheating would never have been exposed without the investigative journalism of the NOTW.

The judge said: "Whenever people look back on a surprising event in a game or a surprising result, or whenever in the future there are surprising events or results, followers of the game who have paid good money to watch it live or watch it on television will be left to wonder whether there has been fixing and whether what they have been watching is a genuine contest between bat and ball."
He made no orders for compensation regarding the £150,000, adding: "I consider that the NOTW got what it bargained for."

Butt, Asif and Majeed are thought to have been sent to Wandsworth prison in south London while Amir will serve his sentence at Feltham young offenders' institution in west London.
Amir's barrister, Henry Blaxland QC, initially said he would be seeking bail pending an appeal against his client's sentence.